iPhoneography .. a beginning

When I first started Instagram, my earliest subjects were flowers. I think mainly because they are really good posers .. they don't talk much and stay still for the most part .. unless a breeze is blowing .. then they JUST DANCE! (^^)

My first photo was a bouquet of Flame of the Forest .. from my dad .. he's in heaVen but his floWers live on. At this stage, I wasn't really experimenting with filters yet. I had just gotten my iPhone and it was mainly about composition within a square and a sharp focus. More than anything .. i just wanted to make sure these flowers lasted forever. They wilted within a day off the tree, but that's the magic of a photograph .. your memory becomes eternal in digital.

This was an exercise in catching raindrops. It was also an experiment in transforming a subject with a rather unattractive background (a plain garden wall) into a beautiful moment. I think i was rather happy with it! (^^)

The thing about iPhoneography is .. it's mobile. It's so mobile you could pull your car up next to a flowering bush in the middle of nowhere and risk hopping out onto the freeway for a shot you know you have to get .. or regret deeply and lose sleep over forever. I guess i can be impulsive that way .. anything for a rush of adrenaline out in the wild (^^) 

This was definitely a first foray into contrast and depth of field with my iPhone. I pretty much stuck to the Instagram application for it and was truly happy with the results! It helped that my original shot on Camera+ was in great sunshine and had amazing clarity.

My mom loved hibiscus. I inherited all her favourites when she crossed over in 2011. Of them all, this one blooms the best and most often. I think it's because they bloom with her love for me. I love this shot. Something about how it filled a perfect square with tons of frills and lovely pastel ... totally my mom.

Same bush as above, but this one was a little experiment in mood. For some reason .. it felt like a little alien satellite. And so i instinctively tried to make it seem somewhat surreal. I think mission accomplished!

Roses are red .. and yellow too .. whatever the colour .. the Love shines through.
Another inheritance from my mom. I used a darker edit for this one. I was still experimenting at this stage, finding my style. But i also missed my mother a lot, fresh from her crossing over .. so perhaps it was this mood that came through.

Butterfly peas growing wild in my garden. After the dark edit, i was trying something brighter but with a little more of a dreamy feel. I was also still learning to use the square function on instagram - hence the black line on the upper part of the picture. I obviously didn't crop it clean enough! I think this was also my first attempt at getting the sky into my shots.

This rose bush only flowered for a year. And everytime it bloomed, it was on a special occasion and there would only be 3 roses. Almost as if it was saying I LOVE YOU each time. It was my mom's favourite rose bush - her pride. And as my heart healed, the blooms disappeared. And as i finally had peace to say farewell to my mother and wish her well on her journey .. it withered away.

When we are cherished despite our thorns, we bloom all the brighter. Love is like that ♥